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Hello, previously I asked if I could use a non computer designated PSU to power my GPU temperiorly to rule out the GPU being the problem (not sure how clear i made that but just a 12V power supply to power..anything that accepts it) in this thread :

My recently installed 9600GT is the asus EN9600GT/HTDI/512M ( http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=tFij18fgyUHDGvhu )
Shortly after posting the other question I booted the PC without anything plugged into the 6pin power slot on the GPU and booted fine, with no "insufficient power, performance decreased to safe level" warning, unlike when I had a PCIe external power connector plugged into it.

Before I just took out the external power connector everything was running noticeably slower then normal, ie loading a new browser tab slowly, which I would have thought would have been a piece of cake for even the oldest of cards. Now no external power is connected to it and everything appears to be running perfectly, getting around 100-120 fps on medium settings on COD4, very smooth [EDIT:using a edited ms_config file for maximum fps..forgot about that] (yes I know its a very old card but I am not prepared to buy a complete new system just yet)

My motherboard is the Gigabyte G1975X, I suspect it has *overclocked* as such the pcie x16 slot without it appearing in any monitoring programs apart from pc wizard ;

Titan

From the power consumption figures I've seen for the GeForce 9600 GT, a reference clocked card only draws 74 Watts maximum under a gaming graphics load, and a maximum of 78 Watts when running Furmark GPU stress testing.

The 74 Watt power consumption for typical gaming falls within the PCIe x16 slot's maximum power draw specification for a PCIe expansion card of 75 Watts. That's why you're not having any power problems without the use of the 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector.

If you were to run Furmark then you might have a different story to tell.

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Did some tests, running a power meter between the psu power plug and the wall as such, running furmark to get the load readings.

134W while on the windows login screen, 230W stable ish after 10min of furmark, couldn't see any artifacts or snow though admittedly i didnt watch for long, 8FPS at x4MSAA, 1600x900 res, burn in test. My old 8400gs was getting bearly 1 fps on 1600x900, all other settings on minimum, well thats certainly an improvement.

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Yea, that sounds like good advice, its quite a step up from my 8400gs and for the games I have I'm quite happy with its current performance, I think I shall strategically stop here, thanks again for your help.